I live in northwest Washington, very close to the raspberry capital of the United States: Lynden, Washington. Raspberries are so central to the regional economy that every summer Lynden hosts a raspberry festival. This year I attended the Northwest Raspberry Festival for the first time, and, while there, took a fun little tour of a very impressive raspberry farm.
That got me curious about picture books about berries, which led me to pick up Picking Berries, a 2017 picture book.
This is an interesting book. Written by Hannah Lindoff and Marigold Lindoff, it focuses on berries growing in Southeast Alaska, and on their role in indigenous cultures of the region. There’s only limited story. Instead, this is a celebration of the fact that this is spring and it is time to pick berries. David Lang’s illustrations present berries of different type and color–and incorporate design elements of the Native peoples in the region.
The text narrates the berry picking in rhyme, and employs a similar blending, this time of English and Lingit, Xaad Kil, and Sm’algyax (the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimhshian languages, respectively). Some sections comment directly on language. For example, one page includes these lines: “You can call them raspberry, me, I say naasu!” At the end of the book, there’s a brief glossary: it shows different berries, and explains the names in the different languages.
The result is a light, gently educational book that introduces language and culture respectfully.
This book was published by the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Native non-profit organization based in Alaska, and is part of their Baby Raven Reads series,
